• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.107-118
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• 1999

Eight tardigrade species belonging to the genus Batillipes are recorded from the intertidal and shallow sublittoral sands at 29 localities in South Korea. Batillipes rotundiculus n. sp. is characteristic in having the round caudal protrusion and the blister-like lateral body protuberance between legs III and IV. Five species (B. pennaki Marcus, B. similis Schulz, B. tridentatus Pollock, B. crassipes Tchesunov and Mokievsky, and B. philippinensis Chang and Rho), newly known to Korean fauna, are briefly remarked with illustrations. A key to the eight species of the batillipedid tardigrades from Korea is prepared.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.351-357
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• 2007

Regions (about 3.7-3.8 kb) of the mitochondrial genomes (rrnL-cox1) of two tardigrades, a heterotardigrade, Batillipes pennaki, and a eutardigrade, Pseudobiotus spinifer, were sequenced and characterized. The gene order in Batillipes was $\underline{rrnL}-\underline{V}-\underline{rrnS}-\underline{Q}-\underline{I}$-M-nad2-W-$\underline{C}-\underline{Y}$-cox1, and in Pseudobiotus it was $\underline{rrnL}-\underline{V}-\underline{rrnS}-\underline{Q}$-M-nad2-W-$\underline{C}-\underline{Y}$-cox1. With the exception of the trnI gene, the two tardigrade regions have the same gene content and order. Their gene orders are strikingly similar to that of the chelicerate Limulus polyphemus (rrnL-V-rrnS-CR-I-Q-M-nad2-W-C-Y-cox1), which is considered to be ancestral for arthropods. Although the tardigrades do not have a distinct control region (CR) within this segment, the trnI gene in Pseudobiotus is located between rrnL-trnL1 and trnL2-nad1, and the trnI gene in Batillipes is located between trnQ and trnM. In addition, the 106-bp region between trnQ and trnM in Batillipes not only contains two plausible trnI genes with opposite orientations, but also exhibits some CR-like characteristics. The mitochondrial gene arrangements of 183 other protostomes were compared. 60 (52.2%) of the 115 arthropods examined have the M-nad2-W-C-Y-cox1 arrangement, and 88 (76.5%) the M-nad2-W arrangement, as found in the tardigrades. In contrast, no such arrangement was seen in the 70 non-arthropod protostomes studied. These are the first non-sequence molecular data that support the close relationship of tardigrades and arthropods.